the bahai world center is now located across the bay in haifa, israel. and the resting place of bahÁ'u'llah outside of the city of acre in an area called bahji is where the shrine of bahÁ'u'llah is located. so both the cities of acre and haifa are sacred ground to the bahais. there are many misconceptions about the bahai faith; one of them is that the bahai faith is a syncretism or a mishmash of previous religions. or merely a conglomeration of 20th century and late 19th century ideas and philosophies attached to religion. this is far from the case. the bahai faith has it's own independent prophet, it's own independent scripture so it is quite obviously an independent religion. and it was deemed as such by a muslim court in the 1940s as not a sect or an offshoot of islam but as an independent religion. the other misconceptions about the bahai faith vary from place to place throughout the world. in the united states, it is - we commonly hear that the bahai faith is a philosophy that has attracted many white middle class intellectuals or liberals. when i